Installing Ubuntu 12.04

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Duff-Man

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Hi MyBB

After many years with Windows I've decided to move to Ubuntu as my OS. If Windows 8 goes as planned it will most likely be a commercial flop like Windows Vista, don't get me wrong change is good, but Microsoft, for me, have gone about this the wrong way, they've taken a teblet/smartphone interface and created "Metro" and infused it with a traditional desktop OS which doesn't really mesh well. So I've decided to move to Ubuntu.

However moving from Windows to Ubuntu does pose some problems and some questions.

1) Is there a utility to load a Windows 7 backup onto Ubuntu 12.04?

2) How compatible are programs/games with Ubuntu 12.04?

3) How compatible are drivers with Ubuntu 12.04?

4) Are there any disadvantages that would be worth knowing on Ubuntu 12.04 when compared to Windows 7/8?


Thanks in advance
Duff-Man
 
I don't understand your rational for moving OS.

Win8 hasn't been released yet.

Win7 will have full support for many years yet.

So Win8 cannot be your reason for changing OS in such a hurry.

If the reason is to learn Linux, then I seriously suggest you run Ubuntu in a VM before moving.
 
Last edited:
1st thing Ubuntu is not Windows, everything is different from the programs to the file system so I have a feeling you have no idea what you letting yourself in for, but here goes.

1) Not really, because of above its not gonna help you anyway, best solution copy your data to another drive and copy onto Ubuntu or See bellow.
2) For most part you will want to use Linux Alternatives and only if you can not find them will you try Wine (Api translator) to "emulate" windows calls and run them, with some hassle
3) Don't need drivers for most of the hardware, in some cases like say Nvidia you can get commercial support(driver module) but this is very slim.
4) Loads esp if you have no clue what you letting yourself in for.

Now for proper route to follow.
1st, download what we call a Live CD you can boot up from the CD and get an idea of how it looks and runs. (Will not affect your installed OS) if you like what you see then move to next step.
2nd, Install it on a second partition alongside with Windows, this way you can boot into the OS you want, so you can easily go back to windows if you get stuck. Only when you see yourself knowing /getting use to Linux you can move to the next step.
3rd, Install Linux onto your computer and laugh at the people still stuck in the windows world updating anti virus and what not, using Virtualbox once in a blue moon if you need windows based app.
 
bekdik said:
I don't understand your rational for moving OS.

Win8 hasn't been released yet.

Win7 will have full support for many years yet.

So Win8 cannot be your reason for changing OS in such a hurry.

If the reason is to learn Linux, then I seriously suggest you run Ubuntu in a VM before moving.
Click to expand...

I'm going to be running Ubuntu on an old hard drive first to get the feel of it and see if it really is worth the move. The main reason for changing my OS, is that I don't see Microsoft going back from Metro and eventully support for Windows 7 will be cut, so I thought why wait for that to happen when I could move to an alternative now, such as Ubuntu.
 
Elimentals said:
1st thing Ubuntu is not Windows, everything is different from the programs to the file system so I have a feeling you have no idea what you letting yourself in for, but here goes.

1) Not really, because of above its not gonna help you anyway, best solution copy your data to another drive and copy onto Ubuntu or See bellow.
2) For most part you will want to use Linux Alternatives and only if you can not find them will you try Wine (Api translator) to "emulate" windows calls and run them, with some hassle
3) Don't need drivers for most of the hardware, in some cases like say Nvidia you can get commercial support(driver module) but this is very slim.
4) Loads esp if you have no clue what you letting yourself in for.

Now for proper route to follow.
1st, download what we call a Live CD you can boot up from the CD and get an idea of how it looks and runs. (Will not affect your installed OS) if you like what you see then move to next step.
2nd, Install it on a second partition alongside with Windows, this way you can boot into the OS you want, so you can easily go back to windows if you get stuck. Only when you see yourself knowing /getting use to Linux you can move to the next step.
3rd, Install Linux onto your computer and laugh at the people still stuck in the windows world updating anti virus and what not, using Virtualbox once in a blue moon if you need windows based app.
Click to expand...

I realise that Ubuntu is not Windows, which is why I want to install it ;), but I wanted to be able to run some of my Windows programs and games on Ubuntu which can be done using VirtualBox and Wine if I'm correct. Thanks for the advice hopefully soon I will be operating off Ubuntu :)
 
Duff-Man said:
I'm going to be running Ubuntu on an old hard drive first to get the feel of it and see if it really is worth the move. The main reason for changing my OS, is that I don't see Microsoft going back from Metro and eventully support for Windows 7 will be cut, so I thought why wait for that to happen when I could move to an alternative now, such as Ubuntu.
Click to expand...

Coming from Windows, I have a feeling you might prefer Linux Mint http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2031 Its based on Ubuntu and use the same libraries/apps, well for most that is.

I prefer Cinnamon UI but you can even try Mate.
 
Duff-Man said:
I'm going to be running Ubuntu on an old hard drive first to get the feel of it and see if it really is worth the move. The main reason for changing my OS, is that I don't see Microsoft going back from Metro and eventully support for Windows 7 will be cut, so I thought why wait for that to happen when I could move to an alternative now, such as Ubuntu.
Click to expand...

Support end date for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 are as follows:

Windows XP 4/8/2014

Windows Vista 4/11/2017

Windows 7 1/14/2020


???
 
I agree with the others. While I do all of my day to day work on ubuntu, I still dual boot with windows for games and applications that are windows specific. I don't particularly like wine and haven't had too much success with it, but I think that is dependent on the types of programs you use. You will get the most joy out of ubuntu if you understand what it is- an alternative operating system, and not an alternative windows.
 
Duff-Man said:
Hi MyBB

After many years with Windows I've decided to move to Ubuntu as my OS. If Windows 8 goes as planned it will most likely be a commercial flop like Windows Vista, don't get me wrong change is good, but Microsoft, for me, have gone about this the wrong way, they've taken a teblet/smartphone interface and created "Metro" and infused it with a traditional desktop OS which doesn't really mesh well. So I've decided to move to Ubuntu.

However moving from Windows to Ubuntu does pose some problems and some questions.

1) Is there a utility to load a Windows 7 backup onto Ubuntu 12.04?

2) How compatible are programs/games with Ubuntu 12.04?

3) How compatible are drivers with Ubuntu 12.04?

4) Are there any disadvantages that would be worth knowing on Ubuntu 12.04 when compared to Windows 7/8?


Thanks in advance
Duff-Man
Click to expand...

If you use Microsoft Office a lot, be careful, because the Open Source alternatives completely suck, and are not that compatible even though they like to pretend to be.

It sounds like you are where I was about two years ago, I switched to Ubuntu, loved it, then I switched to MAC, because Mac has a similar 'feel' to Linux (Unix-like terminal etc.), it runs MS Office for MAC, and has a bit more eye candy on the interface (not to mention the touch gestures.)

Give Ubuntu a go! Its a good first step away from MS Windows! I have never looked back!
 
My other tips would be to stay away from Virtualisation as much as possible! Rather run a dual-boot!
 
SpoonTech said:
If you use Microsoft Office a lot, be careful, because the Open Source alternatives completely suck, and are not that compatible even though they like to pretend to be.

It sounds like you are where I was about two years ago, I switched to Ubuntu, loved it, then I switched to MAC, because Mac has a similar 'feel' to Linux (Unix-like terminal etc.), it runs MS Office for MAC, and has a bit more eye candy on the interface (not to mention the touch gestures.)

Give Ubuntu a go! Its a good first step away from MS Windows! I have never looked back!
Click to expand...

Hopefully I will be running Ubuntu soon :)
 
You do realise Ubuntu is running unity as it's de, which is an attempt for a tablet ui on a desktop. Secondly you won't get your windows apps working with out a lot of tweaks or if at all.
 
First time I moved to a Linux OS, I didn't even know what it was. I was simply thrilled by the idea that you could have two operating systems on your PC. I found absolutely no point for it (I didn't know it couldn't run windows apps). It was Kubuntu 9.04 (I think.) Juanty Jackolope (again, I think.) And I got it on the September 2009 issue of PCFormat.

Touching story.....

Eventually I screwed up the GRUB boot thing so I had to do a fresh install of windows. The end.
 
Duff-Man said:
Okay everyone last two questions :

1) If I use this procedure http://www.ehow.com/how_8260405_replace-windows-7-ubuntu.html to replace Windows 7 with Ubuntu 12.04, would I lose all of my files?

2) Does anyone now the link to download Ubuntu 12.04 from news.saix.net, I know there was a mirror to download Ubuntu 11.10 from news.saix.net but not so sure about 12.04
Click to expand...

1) Yes, I made that mistake once. It formats the whole drive for ubuntu. I think you should rather just go with "install alongside windows 7"
2) Nope, sorry.
 
Duff-Man said:
... they've taken a teblet/smartphone interface and created "Metro" and infused it with a traditional desktop OS which doesn't really mesh well. So I've decided to move to Ubuntu.
Click to expand...

Unity in Ubuntu is not really all that different, feels like a phone/tablet interface but you do have the option to install other desktop environments though.
 
ponder said:
Unity in Ubuntu is not really all that different, feels like a phone/tablet interface but you do have the option to install other desktop environments though.
Click to expand...

Or you could rather just get an ISO of Kubuntu or Lubuntu etc. Rather than install a different desktop environment. I was using Gnome but, rather just install KDE over it. I'm too lazy to do a whole new install of Kubuntu, so now I'm stuck with some gnome packages and kde packages.
 
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